ndar. After you left me we
narrowly missed running one of the fellows--I believe 'twas Will
Scarlet--to earth; and another who came to his relief we were just about
to hang, when your horn blew."

"Who was the other?" asked the disguised outlaw.

"Whom do you suppose?" laughed the Sheriff. "The best man in the
greenwood, next to Robin Hood himself--Little John, Reynold Greenleaf!"
For the Sheriff could not forget the name Little John had borne under
his own roof at Nottingham.

"Little John!" thought Robin with a start. Verily that was a lucky
blast of the bugle! "But I see you have not escaped without a scratch,"
continued the Sheriff, becoming talkative through pure glee. "Here, one
of you men! Give Sir Guy of Gisborne your horse; while others of you
bury that dog of an outlaw where he lies. And let us hasten back to
Barnesdale and finish hanging the other."

So they put spurs to their horses, and as they rode Robin forced himself
to talk merrily, while all the time he was planning the best way to
succor Little John.

"A boon, Sheriff," he said as they reached the gates of the town.

"What is it, worthy sir? You have but to speak."

"I do not want any of your gold, for I have had a brave fight. But now
that I have slain the master, let me put an end to the man; so it shall
be said that Guy of Gisborne despatched the two greatest outlaws of
England in one day."

"Have it as you will," said the Sheriff, "but you should have asked a
knight's fee and double your reward, and it would have been yours. It
isn't every man that can take Robin Hood." "No, Excellency," answered
Robin. "I say it without boasting, that no man took Robin Hood yesterday
and none shall take him to-morrow."

Then he approached Little John, who was still tied to the gallows-tree;
and he said to the Sheriff's men, "Now stand you back here till I see if
the prisoner has been shrived." And he stooped swiftly, and cut Little
John's bonds, and thrust into his hands Sir Guy's bow and arrows, which
he had been careful to take.

"'Tis I, Robin!" he whispered. But in truth, Little John knew it
already, and had decided there was to be no hanging that day.

Then Robin blew three loud blasts upon his own horn, and drew forth his
own bow; and before the astonished Sheriff and his men could come to
arms the arrows were whistling in their midst in no uncertain fashion.

And look! Through the gates and over the walls came pouring another
flight of arrow